August 16, 2009 20th Sunday, Year B
Eat My Flesh Drink My Blood
There are different varieties of Sunday scripture readings. Some stand alone. They can be readily
understood without reference to what was read last Sunday or what will be read next Sunday. Today's
passage from the Gospel of John is of another kind. It belongs to the category of Mass readings that are
closely linked to those of the Sundays that precede or follow them. That linkage is important to
understanding today's Gospel.
John's Gospel, though it gives more space to the Last Supper than does any other gospel, does not have
any account of the institution of the Eucharist. It is elsewhere that John deals with the Eucharist. In the
Sixth chapter of his gospel, John records actions and words of Jesus that have much to tell us about
what the Eucharist is and what it brings about.
The Church in the Sunday readings of Year B pauses in its presentation of the Gospel of Mark to give
us, in the course of five sequential readings, the entire Sixth chapter of John. Today's reading is the
fourth of these, and is the highlight of that chapter.
Three Sundays ago, the opening reading from Chapter Six recounted that from five barley loaves Jesus
produced enough bread to feed five thousand. Jesus obviously had power to do whatever he wanted
with bread. In the following verses, not read at this time at Sunday Mass, John tells us that Jesus walked
on the surface of the Lake of Galilee. He is not limited by physical conditions.
On the following Sundays, we have had Jesus teaching us that he is the bread of life, which comes down
from heaven and gives life to the world. The Israelites of earlier times ate manna in the desert. But
ultimately they died. Whereas anyone who eats this bread that comes down from heaven will never die.
Today's reading climaxes the message. Jesus as bread of life is not just someone to be listened to and
whose teaching is to be heeded. His flesh must actually be eaten, his blood must be drunk. "My flesh is
real food and my blood is real drink.”
Imagine the consternation of his hearers. Jews were not allowed to drink blood. Jesus was going far
beyond that prohibition. What Jesus said sounded like cannibalism. Next Sunday's Gospel will tell us
that many of his hearers could not accept his teaching. They gave up following him. Peter and other
disciples, despite their puzzlement, remained faithful.
We who have access to both John's Gospel and the Synoptics's accounts of the Last Supper can bring
the two sides of the picture together. Jesus does give us his flesh to eat, with wondrous consequences.
But his flesh has the form of bread, his blood that of wine. Present in sacramental fashion, Christ's flesh
is truly eaten, his blood truly drunk. They have the wonderful and life-giving qualities that we heard of
over these successive Sundays, "The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, as I do in
them.
Humphrey O'Leary CSsR
© Redemptorists 2009
**********************************************
Eat My Flesh Drink My Blood
There are different varieties of Sunday scripture readings. Some stand alone. They can be readily
understood without reference to what was read last Sunday or what will be read next Sunday. Today's
passage from the Gospel of John is of another kind. It belongs to the category of Mass readings that are
closely linked to those of the Sundays that precede or follow them. That linkage is important to
understanding today's Gospel.
John's Gospel, though it gives more space to the Last Supper than does any other gospel, does not have
any account of the institution of the Eucharist. It is elsewhere that John deals with the Eucharist. In the
Sixth chapter of his gospel, John records actions and words of Jesus that have much to tell us about
what the Eucharist is and what it brings about.
The Church in the Sunday readings of Year B pauses in its presentation of the Gospel of Mark to give
us, in the course of five sequential readings, the entire Sixth chapter of John. Today's reading is the
fourth of these, and is the highlight of that chapter.
Three Sundays ago, the opening reading from Chapter Six recounted that from five barley loaves Jesus
produced enough bread to feed five thousand. Jesus obviously had power to do whatever he wanted
with bread. In the following verses, not read at this time at Sunday Mass, John tells us that Jesus walked
on the surface of the Lake of Galilee. He is not limited by physical conditions.
On the following Sundays, we have had Jesus teaching us that he is the bread of life, which comes down
from heaven and gives life to the world. The Israelites of earlier times ate manna in the desert. But
ultimately they died. Whereas anyone who eats this bread that comes down from heaven will never die.
Today's reading climaxes the message. Jesus as bread of life is not just someone to be listened to and
whose teaching is to be heeded. His flesh must actually be eaten, his blood must be drunk. "My flesh is
real food and my blood is real drink.”
Imagine the consternation of his hearers. Jews were not allowed to drink blood. Jesus was going far
beyond that prohibition. What Jesus said sounded like cannibalism. Next Sunday's Gospel will tell us
that many of his hearers could not accept his teaching. They gave up following him. Peter and other
disciples, despite their puzzlement, remained faithful.
We who have access to both John's Gospel and the Synoptics's accounts of the Last Supper can bring
the two sides of the picture together. Jesus does give us his flesh to eat, with wondrous consequences.
But his flesh has the form of bread, his blood that of wine. Present in sacramental fashion, Christ's flesh
is truly eaten, his blood truly drunk. They have the wonderful and life-giving qualities that we heard of
over these successive Sundays, "The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, as I do in
them.
Humphrey O'Leary CSsR
© Redemptorists 2009
**********************************************
